Tuesday, August 09, 2016

IDF thumbs its nose at Europe, US State Department seethes

Four and a half years ago, the Europeans commenced a new strategy to try to force Israel to commit suicide: They began building illegally for the 'Palestinians' in areas that are classified as Area C. At the time I wrote:

When Israel entered into the Oslo Accords in 1993-1995, the entire area
of Judea and Samaria was split into three parts. 'Area A,' which mostly
comprised the seven major cities in Judea and Samaria, and which
contained most of the Arab population of the area, was to be under
'Palestinian' control. 'Area B' was to be under 'Palestinian' civilian
control with Israel responsible for security. 'Area C,' which includes
most of the Jewish cities and towns in Judea and Samaria, was to be
under complete Israeli control.

Under the Oslo Accords, there
were no restrictions on Israeli building in Area C. Those who negotiated
the Oslo Accords envisioned an eventual 'Palestinian autonomy' within
Areas A and B. There was no intent to establish a 'Palestinian state,'
and certainly no promises from Israel that one would be established. In
fact, the opposite was true. This is from Prime Minister Rabin's last
speech to the Knesset - in which he was advocating for a Knesset
endorsement of 'Oslo 2' - on October 5, 1995:

We view the
permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will
include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule
of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which
will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza
Strip and the West Bank.

We
would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which
will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its
authority. The borders of the State of Israel, during the
permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the
Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.

And these are the main changes, not all of them, which we envision and want in the permanent solution:

A. First
and foremost, united Jerusalem, which will include both Ma'ale Adumim
and Givat Ze'ev -- as the capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty,
while preserving the rights of the members of the other faiths,
Christianity and Islam, to freedom of access and freedom of worship in
their holy places, according to the customs of their faiths.

B. The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.

C. Changes
which will include the addition of Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and
other communities, most of which are in the area east of what was the
"Green Line," prior to the Six Day War.

D. The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

That's a far cry from what the 'international community' and the Obama administration are attempting to push on us today.

For a long time, Israel ignored the illegal European building. But the Europeans are obsessed with destroying the Jewish state (that's the strongest lesson I am learning from Tuvia Tenenboim's Catch the Jew), and the IDF has finally decided enough is enough.

The IDF on Tuesday morning razed five unauthorized Palestinian modular structures in the South Hebron region of the West Bank, three of which had been funded by the European Union. [Note the EU flag on the trailer - CiJ].

...

The five structures in question were part of the village of Um al-Kheir,
which is located next to the settlement of Carmel. Three of them were
newly built, very close to the security fence around Carmel.

The non-governmental group B’Tselem, which has opposed such
actions, released a video of the demolition, which showed the shovel of a
crane taking down the structure within minutes as the villagers
watched.

On Sunday, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked visited the South Hebron Hills
to see the unauthorized Palestinian construction for herself.

“I
saw on this trip a tremendous amount of illegal Palestinian building in
Area C, with the help of foreign funding. We can’t allow for a double
standard when it comes to building. It’s not clear to me how those who
fight against Jewish building in Judea and Samaria are a leading force
in illegal Palestinian building,” Shaked said.

But on Monday - before the demolitions happened - the Obama-Clinton-Kerry State Department - the foreign policy czars of the self-proclaimed 'most pro-Israel administration evah' - was seething.

“We are concerned by the accelerated rate of demolitions undertaken by
Israeli authorities that continue in the West Bank as well as east
Jerusalem,” State Department Press Office Director Elizabeth Trudeau
told reporters in Washington at the daily briefing.

Links to this post:

About Me

I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com